Thursday, January 16

FREE TO AIR

The Moaning of Life, ABC1, 9.30pmThere's been plenty of discussion about whether Karl Pilkington really exists or whether he is in fact just another brilliant creation from the fertile mind of Ricky Gervais. From all that has been written on the topic and comments from Gervais himself and his collaborator, Stephen Merchant, it appears, incredibly enough, that the mouth-breathing idiot Everyman really is as he appears. That being the case, what are we to make of Mr Pilkington? Is he simply a clown at whom we can laugh with impunity? Or does he hold an uncomfortable mirror up to some of our own stupidity and bigotry? Or maybe he is an idiot savant, whose apparently guileless pronouncements have some genius about them? It's probably a mixture of all three, judging by this patchy episode in a series in which K. P. flies around the world to investigate the big issues. Here, he is trying to get a handle on why people have kids and whether he might take the plunge into parenthood himself. ''People say it's life changing,'' he says in one of his frequent observations to camera. ''Well that doesn't necessarily mean a good thing, does it?'' Later, he ponders the great existential question: ''We don't know what we are here for. We're all just wandering around doing daft things killing time until we die. That's why frisbees have been invented.'' It's funny, but just a touch depressing and a touch irritating.

Falcon, SBS, 9.30pmHe's a flawed loner with a sad past and a serious drug habit. He's also a chief inspector with rumpled good looks. Heard it all before? Martin Csokas as Javier Falcon in this adaptation of the Robert Wilson stories struggles manfully to inject fresh life into what could easily become a cliched detective-by-numbers scenario. Mostly, he succeeds, aided by the dramatic backdrop of Seville, which becomes as much a character in the drama as the people around Falcon. In this, the second of a two-parter, Falcon is tracking down a serial killer who has a personal grudge against Falcon and his family. If you can get past the jarring English accents and the sense that at times it all takes itself too seriously, you'll be rewarded.

Nowhere Boys, ABC3, 6.30pmIn the third-last episode of this excellent young adult series, things are getting weird for the boys as they try to find their way out of the supernatural soup in which they find themselves. It's great to see the quality of the writing and acting maintained.

NICK GALVIN

PAY TV

Perception, (Season premiere) Universal, 8.30pmEric McCormack is best known as one half of the pair of pals who gave Will & Grace its title. Years before the arrival of Cam and Mitch on Modern Family, that pioneering American TV comedy series (1998-2006) moved gay characters into starring and regular roles on mainstream television. In this crime series, in which McCormack is producer and star, he portrays Daniel Pierce, a Chicago university professor of neuroscience and a paranoid schizophrenic. He is also a consultant who assists FBI agent Kate Moretti (Rachael Leigh Cook) in solving cases using his knowledge of the mysterious workings of the human mind. The start of the second season finds him fit and well and developing his out-of-office relationship with his former shrink (Kelly Rowan). Then he's called on to assist on a case involving a man who tortured and killed his wife. McCormack is charismatic and convincing, but the legal and whodunit aspects of the case in this episode are more predictable and less satisfying.

DEBI ENKER

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MOVIES

Heist (2001) Go, 9.30pm While it lacked the acute psychological barbs of 1987's House of Games or the sheer accumulative power of 1991's Homicide, David Mamet's ear for dialogue and sharp eye for masculine milieus led to Heist, an unexpected B-movie pleasure with an A-list cast. Here it's Gene Hackman in the lead, playing master criminal Joe Moore, who finds himself, his wife (Rebecca Pidgeon) and his crew (Ricky Jay and Delroy Lindo) on the hook to a singularly greedy gangster (a surprisingly pugnacious Danny De Vito). The jobs they pull are cons of a kind and naturally they're matched by the games played by the participants, with Sam Rockwell as the young wolf who oversees Joe while pursuing his wife. Naturally, the wily older man wins out - Mamet was 60 at the time and Pidgeon is his wife - with the direction as visually abrupt as ever. Dialogue and story are all that matter to Mamet and he's as assured with both here.

Enduring Love (2004) M Thriller (pay TV), 1.30pmIan McEwan's celebrated 1997 novel received an unusually astute adaptation from playwright Joe Penhall and director Roger Michell (Notting Hill, Changing Lanes), who capture the opposing sides of the title: does love endure and, just as importantly, how hard is it to endure being loved? After trying and failing to avert a fatal tragedy involving a hot-air balloon, Joe (Daniel Craig) is stalked by the awkward, obsessive Jed (Rhys Ifans), who believes the tragedy has linked them. An academic given to postulating theories, Joe is unprepared for both his own guilt and Jed's attention. Reality overwhelms him, driving away his girlfriend Claire (Samantha Morton), who has an artist's sympathy and eventual cruelty. The movie makes changes from the book, but they don't detract from the result - the two works sit side by side, and it's fascinating to watch Craig's intense central performance map out the picture's emotional terrain in the years just prior to him becoming 007.